Elmia Wood 2013: An important vitamin injection for the entire forest industry

Elmia Wood 2013 was the most important international forestry fair for many years. And it wasn’t just because of the huge attendance figures and best possible weather.

“This was the vitamin injection the whole industry needed,” said Dieter Reinisch, information manager at John Deere.

He praised Elmia for a well-organised fair with more foreign visitors than before.

“Our impression is that half of the people who came to our stand were from countries other than Sweden. This year’s Elmia Wood was also proof that forest professionals have a pent-up need to update their machinery. So far the economic situation is preventing that but when that improves the sales will come.”

His view was shared by Roland Lundqvist, information manager at Komatsu Forest. He has exhibited at Elmia’s forestry fairs since the mid-1970s. He sees a trend that the fairs are increasing in importance and also that customers have different expectations than before.

“Ten or fifteen years ago foreign visitors came and were amazed at the advanced technology. Now the cut-to-length method is so widespread that it’s more important for them to meet the company behind the fancy website,” he said, adding that Elmia Wood has once again shown itself to be the world’s most important forestry fair.

Another company with long experience of Elmia Wood is Haglöfs.

“It’s been really great every day. Elmia is our most important exhibiting event and this year the interest has been even greater than all the previous times we’ve been here,” said the company’s CEO Stefan Haglöf.

One of the exhibitors was Hans-Åke Elofsson, a true veteran exhibitor. His first Elmia was in 1971, when he was invited to lunch with Sweden’s then Crown Prince, now King Carl XVI Gustaf. This year Hans-Åke returned as an exhibitor via his involvement with Malwa, a manufacturer of small machinery.

He was at the fair for two days and walked around the whole site. He gave his assessment of the event:

“This one might well be the best forestry fair at Elmia ever. I’ve never before been to a fair with so many innovations. Elmia really succeeded with its innovation theme.”

Elmia Wood’s business area manager, Torbjörn Johnsen, was satisfied with the result.

“We regard it as a challenge to become even better at future fairs,” he said.

The next forestry fair for the Nordic region will be SkogsElmia on 4-6 June 2015. The international Elmia Wood will return on 7-10 June 2017.

Elmia Wood 2013 had some of the highest attendance figures ever, with something of a record on the third day with 18,400 visitors. The total attendance figure for all four days was 54 215.